A slight setback

God.  Fucking.  Dammit.

Pardon my French (and the blasphemy), but I find it the only way to adequately express my feelings tonight.  You see, my leg hurts.  Again.

In my training cycle two years ago I developed shin splints in my left leg in early October.  And now I'm dealing with the same exact problem in the same exact area, except this time there are only two weeks left until race day.

Looks like running 20 miles the day after setting a new half marathon PR might not have been such a brilliant idea after all.

This is how the week went down:

Sunday: 20 miles.  Start to feel a twinge in my lower left shin that night.
Monday: 1 very slow mile.
Tuesday: 1 very slow mile.
Wednesday: 7 slow miles with my running/beer club.  Shin feels fine throughout.
Thursday: 10 miles at average pace.  Pain returns by the end.
Friday: 1 very slow mile.
Saturday: 1 slow mile followed by 1 mile at marathon pace.  Shin feels fine throughout.
Sunday: Attempted long run, but pain became worst it's been all week, so abandoned run at 6 miles.

The pain this week hasn't been nearly what it was two years ago, which left me optimistic that I could still salvage the situation, but today was a wakeup call.  I need to be more aggressive about letting this heal and arriving at the starting line healthy.

It was the most frustrating experience this morning to be out on a perfect fall day and feel so much strength and power radiating through my whole body, and not be able to access that power and run to my potential due to one tiny section of my body.

I'd like to think the fitness I've built will not dissipate over the next two weeks and I will still be able to crush the marathon, but this certainly isn't helping my mental game at all.

It's going to be a long taper...